What This Item Is

A photo-documented account of Nikki Craft and Teddy McKenna’s direct action against Hustler Magazine in Soquel, California, March 25, 1981: posing as photography students to gain access to a convenience store's magazine rack, then pouring india ink over thirteen pornographic magazines (eleven Hustler, two Penthouse). Includes contemporaneous photographs of the action and its result, and next-day coverage from the Santa Cruz Sentinel (“Three Women Deface 'Nudie' Magazines,” March 26, 1981).

Why It Matters

Documents the opening night of what became a sustained, years-long campaign of direct action against Hustler magazine on newsstands, undertaken in direct retaliation for Hustler's own “Wanted” posters targeting feminists Susan Brownmiller and Gloria Steinem, and coming within days of a Los Angeles action calling for the national destruction of Hustler on newsstands everywhere. The press account's description of the suspects only as “white females in their 20s and 30s” preserves the anonymity the action depended on at the time.

Contents

A five-page PDF: cover photograph and summary; the action in progress; the resulting defaced magazine display (two angles); the Santa Cruz Sentinel's contemporaneous news coverage; a closing photograph with Craft's own retrospective caption.

Rights & Citation Note

Photographs © Nikki Craft. Newspaper clipping: “Three Women Deface 'Nudie' Magazines,” Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 26, 1981, included for documentary and historical citation purposes. Compiled framing by Claude (Anthropic) in collaboration with Nikki Craft, as part of the Nikki Craft Archival Project.

Keywords

Nikki Craft, Teddy McKenna, Hustler magazine, direct action, civil disobedience, pornography protest, Larry Flynt, Susan Brownmiller, Gloria Steinem, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Soquel California, 1981, anti-pornography, feminist activism

Date: Action occurred March 25, 1981; press coverage March 26, 1981; compiled and archived July 2026

Collection: Nikki Craft Archival Project — Direct Action

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